Casinos: Big cure or bad medicine?

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Across Canada, First Nations are increasingly anxious to set up on-reserve gambling facilities to reduce chronically high levels of unemployment and to generate much-needed income and economic development.

But based on a fundamental analysis of business and market factors and trends already evident in the U.S., Native-run gambling businesses may prove to be more of a Trojan Horse than the "second coming of the buffalo" as some promoters have described it.

Advocates at a recent Native gaming conference held in Vancouver said, "The road to riches through Native gambling is paved with gold and free of potholes." Yet some indicators suggest that, rather than gambling being a ticket to economic emancipation, it may actually worsen such problems as poverty, substance abuse and violence on reserves.